


Dangerous Currents

by D0minic02



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Deviates From Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Established Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Friendship, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Mentioned Stiles Stilinski/Malia Tate, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Original Mythology, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Allison Argent's Death, Post-Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Sea Monsters, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is Noah, Spoilers, Stiles Stilinski-centric, Supernatural Elements, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D0minic02/pseuds/D0minic02
Summary: A few months after the season 3 finale so SPoILERs so those who haven't seen it!..The pack, still shaken from the events a few months ago, stumble upon a new mystery when people start turning up drowned in the forest with seemingly no proof of it being a murder. Filled with grief and fear, will they get through the threats thrust upon them or will they finally crack?ORA new "season" because they got over everything too quickly and we do like whump.
Relationships: Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Stiles Stilinski/Malia Tate
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fanficton so it's probably riddled with mistakes, let me know if you find any (constructive criticism is appreciated!)  
> There's lots more to come with a planned out storyline and whump to come! 
> 
> I really hope you like it! Enjoy!!

As the blue skies were taken by black, a lone man was walking through the forests of Beacon Hills with purpose. Not taken aback by the howling and odd noises in the dark trees, he kept walking with great precision not once checking to see if he was going the right way. It was as if he knew the forested roads by heart

***

His body was found near the outskirts of the forest a few days later. As usual, Sheriff Stilinksi was on the case.  
Although his son had tried everything from using his great charisma to begging he’d left him at home. After the events of a few months ago, he’d rather cut off a limb than put him in danger again. 

It had been a few months since the traumatizing events brought on by the nogitsune. It hurt a great deal but people had no choice but to move on. Though the wound's healing was forcefully sped up it was still tender to the touch. 

The sheriff came back home in the afternoon, clearly distraught. He grabbed a drink from the kitchen and threw the case files on the kitchen table before settling there himself. As he took in both the whiskey and the bizarre circumstances of the man’s death he wondered why the house was so quiet. Dropped everything and nervously went to his son’s room.  
He knocked on his door and was filled with relief when Stiles called him to come in. He was laying spread across his bed staring at the ceiling.  
“Hey kid, you okay?” the sheriff asked.  
He didn’t make an effort to look at his dad and instead remained still, “Yeah, just thinking.”  
“Anything you wanna talk about?”  
“Nothing already not said.”  
The sheriff sighed. He knew that Stiles was getting stuck on… he didn’t even wanna say its name. He thought about his promise to himself earlier and sighed again, he wouldn’t be putting his son in danger he only got involved in the thinking right? Besides it would be a good distraction.  
“I have the case files in the kitchen if you wanna take a look.”  
“That’s fine,” Stiles said as he turned his head to his dad. The sheriff studied his face. He looked miserable. Not the, will go away after a shower and good nights sleep kind of miserable but the type of miserable that didn’t go away too easily.  
“Are you sure? It’s a really odd one, I could use your help.”  
Stiles took in a deep breath and got out of bed, “okay you got me,” he smiled briefly.

***

The next day came quickly. The Stilinksi’s had spent the majority of the night brainstorming about what might have caused the strange series of circumstances but nothing came to mind. So they went off to bed.  
School was as usual, a grey atmosphere filled the corridors, only barely muffled by the light of the students lingering in the corridors. 

The pack gathered together at lunch where Stiles was debating whether to tell them about the case or not.  
Had it been long enough? How were they coping? Would they go crazy on him if he suggested another supernatural goose-chase? And was he, himself ready for this? After all, he was still haunted by the nightmares of what he’d done. His heart still sank whenever he looked at any of his friends, afraid that they’d suddenly turn on him, blaming him for everything that had happened (not that they could blame him more than he was already blaming himself).  
Unfortunately his mouth was too quick for his own good, “So did you guys hear about the body the other day?”  
An awkward silence filled the air as everyone looked at him.  
“What?” Stiles asked.  
Scott cleared his throat, “No, is it bad?”  
“What dead body?” both Malia and Lydia said at the same time.  
“Some man was found drowned in the forest outskirts”  
“So?” Malia asked.  
“There isn’t a body water anywhere near there,” Lydia answered.  
“There also weren’t any signs of trouble or other injuries found.”  
Scott shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “Does it have anything to do with us?”  
“It doesn’t sound very natural, but I don’t know.” Stiles shrugged.  
“Should we really get involved? It hasn’t been that long since…” Lydia didn’t finish her sentence, everyone already knew what she was talking about.

***  
The sheriff and deputies had gone back to where the body was found. The water from the victim’s lungs had been tested and revealed to be from a natural water source. It didn’t make sense. Their first assumption was that the man had been taken first but there weren’t any tracks near the body either way and the autopsy had made it clear that no one had laid a hand on him. 

Once identified, a background check was done on him, which showed there was no one to notify. He had no family. He was completely alone. 

***  
“Are we sure we want to do this?” Scott asked one last time. He really wasn’t sure if he wanted to get back in action just now. What if they lost someone again? What if something even worse happened?  
“Relax, we’ll be fine,” Malia said and got closer to the police.  
Though they were definitely out of earshot for any normal person, thanks to their super-hearing they could understand everything. Stiles on the hand, was retired to keep watch in case any of the cops wondered into their location.  
He couldn’t help but feel nervous. How could he not feel nervous? His father had made it very clear that he didn’t want him messing with this but Stiles was ready to face the killer alone if that’s what it took to convince everyone (including himself) that he was still good.  
“Anything?” Stiles asked impatiently.  
Both shapeshifters shushed him and turned back to him a few moments later.  
“There isn’t any new information, they keep repeating the exact thing you told us.” Scott said.  
“Maybe if we saw the body we could catch a scent or something.” Malia said, clearly frustrated with the lack of new information.  
“The body’s already at the morgue, we’d have to break in”  
“Nothing we haven’t done before,” Stiles suggested.  
Scott sighed, “Look, I know I agreed to come out here and I know you’re worried there could be something supernatural going on here but maybe we should take it a bit slow.”  
“Yeah but, this is always how it happens, we say there’s nothing on then all of a sudden we have ten dead bodies plus others piling up,” Stiles argued.  
“I don’t know Stiles but I think Scott might be right here. I didn’t know,” she hesitated to call Allison by her name but then decided to change her sentence all together, “I don’t know what else you guys went through but maybe we should keep it safe right now.” 

Stiles felt like he was hit over the head but he wouldn’t let up, he couldn’t let anyone else die if he could help it, “What about the people after this man? Are we just going to let them die?”  
“We can’t keep everyone safe,” Scott said uncharacteristically.  
“Not if we don’t try. After what happened at the- I killed them-” Scott tried to interrupt him but Stiles didn’t let him, “Please, I can’t let anyone else die, I need this.” He held his tears in but the others didn’t need to see them, his scent already gave everything away. Even though they really didn’t want to, both Malia and Scott reluctantly agreed to help. 

***  
Outside the hospital a plan was formulated. Scott would stall his mom and Stiles and Malia would slip in the morgue and get out without anyone seeing them. However when they came face to face with the reception the plan seemed a lot harder than before. 

Scott went up to his mom and did his best to stop her from seeing either of his friends as they slipped past. As the others started to quickly try and walk past he and his mom Scott felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up and out of nowhere he leaned over the reception and gave his mom a hug, making sure that she was facing the other way. 

First part of the plan was successful, they were in the morgue. A sense of urgency washed over them as they shuffled through the name tags to find the right body. Little did they know, Noah Stilinksi was right behind the door waiting to give them a long lecture. 

***

Stiles cringed as his dad tightly held him by the shoulder and dragged him and the others out of the hospital.  
“What part of ‘I don’t want you getting involved’ didn’t you understand?” Stiles didn’t need super-senses to tell how angry his dad was.  
“The ‘don’t’ part?” he answered and immediately regretted it. His dad frowned even more.  
He looked at the all teens, “None of you are to get involved any further. Got it?” when the teens nodded he turned back to his son, “we’ll talk about this later.” 

***  
They sat in silence in the jeep until Malia spoke up, “I got a scent.”  
Before anyone could say anything thunder echoed throughout Beacon Hills.  
“I think you got your answer,” Stiles said as it started raining hard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know it's super short but the next chapter should be up soon   
> Comments and/or Kudos are greatly appreciated :)

Back at home Scott and Kira were cuddling in bed.   
She’d been a bit more distant after Allison had died but was slowly getting back to her old self. She didn’t know how to react to everything. She hadn’t known her as well as the others but they were still friends so of course she was devastated. But what broke her heart even more was seeing how miserable Scott was. He was slowly getting over her death and Kira didn’t expect him to just forget about her. Especially because of what she said last.   
Scott tried not to think of her. It was hard. Even though he loved Kira he couldn’t forget about Allison. He told himself that it was normal but he just wanted to get over it. He didn’t want to be so sad anymore.  
When his friend had suggested the new case he wanted to look into it. His alpha instincts weren’t dormant, he still wanted to save everyone he could. But, what if they lost someone again? What if he couldn’t protect his pack? They were still teenagers after all, not the guardians of this town. But then again, they sort of were. Without them, the whole place would fall apart.   
He really hated the way Stiles looked at him sometimes. He could tell that he couldn’t help but imagine pushing that sword into him. Scott would think of it too but he knew it wasn’t Stiles’ fault. He’d seen “his” face when it had happened. Even though the nogitsune was making him laugh, he knew Stiles was struggling to stop it behind the smile.  
He didn’t blame him for anything, he just couldn’t convince his best friend that that was true. 

Kira turned to Scott, “What do you think about all this? The new body?”   
Scott yawned, “I don’t know. I guess I’m hoping it isn’t actually anything supernatural.”   
“What if it is?”   
“Then we’ll fight.”

***

The night went a bit differently for Stiles. His father had to get back to work so he drove everyone home and met with his dad back at the station.   
Most of the furniture was new, but it wasn’t supposed to be. He imagined the station exploding. He remembered running up to one of the deputies just before he died, begging Scott to take his pain. But he hadn’t meant it, he was just going to take it from Scott later. He had killed people he knew, people that had helped him with homework or kept him company on the days he had to wait for his dad. He had killed them. 

He took in a shaky breath, he told himself that it wasn’t him. That it was the nogitsune but he still felt the darkness Deaton said they’d feel, so what if got even darker? What if spread all over him and he did something bad again?   
If he could solve this, if he could save anyone else from getting killed he knew that the darkness might get a bit lighter. And he would do anything for that. 

He knocked at his father’s office door and he told him to come in. He was at his desk typing something on his computer. He looked up when his son came in.   
Stiles could feel a lecture coming on.  
“Sit down,” he said, “I still don’t know what to think in the light of my new enlightenments but all I know is that it almost got you killed and it killed your friend. I’m saying this both as your parent and the sheriff, I can’t have something like that happen again. I don’t want you getting too involved in things like that again but at the same time I know I won’t be able to stop you.” 

Stiles didn’t have to be a werewolf to sense the guilt and fear radiating of his dad. He didn’t want to worry him so much but he was right, he couldn’t stop getting involved.   
The sheriff continued, “I just need you to say you’ll be careful and that you won’t hide anything from me again. I don’t know what I’ll do if something like that happens again. I need you to know that you can come to me.”   
“Yeah I will, and I do know. I just-,” Stiles didn’t know what to say next.   
“I know you feel like you need to make up for something, but you have nothing to make up for. No one blames you for what happened so you have to stop blaming yourself. Don’t lose yourself trying to fix something that isn’t broken.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope you're enjoying this/ If anything bothers you let me know. Any feedback is appreciated :)


	3. Chapter 3

***  
The next day the rain hadn’t shown any signs of slowing down.   
During break time Malia ran to catch up with Lydia and Stiles who were walking to math. As they entered the classroom Malia groaned as she looked at the alien language on the board.   
She wanted to turn back but Lydia must’ve felt it and stopped to push her into the classroom.   
“It’s only 40 minutes,” Lydia said.   
“40 minutes of pain and torture” Malia growled back and Stiles hummed in agreement.   
Lydia rolled her eyes, “So you guys didn’t find anything last night?”   
“I got the man’s scent. We could've followed it but it’s probably gone with the rain.”   
“Anything from your dad?”  
“He’s as confused as we are,” Stiles sighed.  
“Then all we can do is wait,” Malia said.   
“Yeah, wait for someone else to get mauled.”

Stiles tried to focus on the board but he couldn’t stop thinking about the body. There must’ve been something they missed. He looked at the others as he tapped his foot. No one in class had no idea about the murder. They were listening to class as if nothing had happened. He looked at Malia, she was chewing her pencil as she listened to the teacher in confusion. Lydia on the other hand wasn’t making an effort to listen. She was staring out the window.   
Stiles called her name but she didn’t seem to hear it. She was lost in whatever she saw out in the rain.   
Stiles called her again, louder this time, and she finally turned around.   
“What is it?” he asked.  
Lydia looked distraught and confused, she tucked her strawberry blond hair behind her ear, “I- I thought I saw something.”   
Both teens squinted to see through the grey weather but it was only Lydia who saw a figure run across the parking lot. She jumped. Her gut was filled with a sore feeling.   
“Did you see something?”   
“You didn’t see something run past us?” Lydia asked with fear. She was scared that she was having a banshee vision again.   
Her fears were confirmed when Stiles denied seeing anything. She got up and ran out of the classroom to investigate further. She was filled with the rushing feeling that something terrible was about to happen.   
Malia tried to run after her but the teacher stopped her which allowed Stiles to slip by. The teacher called out after him but he said he was going to help Lydia and kept going. 

He caught up to her outside. She was standing in the middle of the road completely drenched. Scott was with her.   
“You saw it too?” Stiles said but his voice was lost in the storm. 

Both of them were staring at the road. Scott turned around first, “Did you see it?” he asked.  
“No, what was it?”  
“It was really fast, it disappeared by the time I got here.”  
Noticing that Lydia still hadn’t turned around they called name but she didn’t answer. Scott and Stiles looked at each other in confusion. What was she seeing?   
“Something terrible is happening,” her voice trembled with the cold wind, “Someone’s about to die.” 

***

Back in the forest was another victim, walking through the rainstorm without a fret. Her clothing was barely suitable for the weather. It looked like she’d just ran out of the door.   
Most of her hair was in front of face, probably creating a sore sight for anyone who might see her. She didn’t bother to tuck her hair to the sides. She didn’t need to see to get where she was going anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the ones who left kudos they made me really happy :)   
> I'll update again in a few days. I hope y'all are intrigued :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes, finally a long chapter. I'm not very sure if anyone's reading this but I shall not falter! If you do happen to be a reader I really hope you enjoy this!   
> Kudos and/or comments would be greatly appreciated!   
> Let me know if there's anything that bothers you, please :)   
> Enjoyy for the mystery keeps rising ;)

The pack had gathered at the McCall residence afterschool. They all stood around Scott’s room thinking about what had Lydia felt.  
“What do you think it means?” Kira questioned.  
“I don’t know but it can’t be anything good” Lydia shifted uncomfortably.   
Scott sat on the foot on his bed next to Stiles who inadvertently moved away. 

“Okay, so what are we supposed to do? I mean, what do you guys usually do when stuff like this happens?” Malia questioned. The tense air was making her impatient. It felt like there was a barrier between everyone, limiting their interactions.   
Scott and Stiles turned to each other, then back to Malia.   
“Well we usually,” Scott started and Stiles finished for him, “stumble around until we find something.”  
Lydia rolled her eyes but she knew they were right. Even if they tried to go at this logically they didn’t have enough data to actually account for anything. 

Kira put her hands on her hips, “You said that someone was about to die right? We know that the last person died somewhere near the forest, so maybe we should be looking there?”   
“Yeah but the reserve is huge. Even if we split up there’s very little chance we’ll actually find this person.” Scott said. 

Frustrated with the lack of progress Stiles got up and started pacing around the room. He knew that there’d be more bodies until they could find something which could actually help them.   
When he looked at Malia an idea popped into his head. It was a long shot but there wasn't anything better they could do right now.   
They could go through attendance records at school and missing person’s reports at the station to see if anyone was missing.   
Everyone seemed on board except Kira.   
“I really think we should check out the forest. You guys can use your senses to find something. We could even find the missing person.”  
She looked at Scott with a pleading look, then to the others.   
“There’s no point in not trying,” Scott agreed and looked at Stiles, “Malia could go with her. No one knows the forest better than she does. Lydia can talk to her mom and you and I can go to the station.”   
“Alright,” Stiles agreed and pointed at Malia, “but you, no getting kidnapped. Got it?” 

***

As she made her way to her mom’s desk Lydia desperately hoped that her mom wouldn’t be too much of a problem. She guessed that she was vaguely aware that at least something weird was going on even if she didn't know the whole truth about the supernatural.   
She put on a smile when she saw her mom. She smiled back at her.   
“What are you doing here?” she asked.   
“Just saying hello to my mom,” Lydia smiled but knew that her mother saw through her.  
“Really?” she pushed up her glasses, “what do you want?”   
Lydia kept her sweet voice and smile on, “I was wondering if you could maybe let me see the absentee list?”   
“And why exactly would I let you see the attendance record?” Ms. Martin laughed at her request.   
Realizing that this would be harder than she’d hoped she said, “A life could be at stake here mom,” as convincingly as she could.   
“Really? How’s that?”   
When her daughter didn’t answer Natalie raised an eyebrow.   
“Please, mom? I’m serious, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. ” 

She looked at her daughter, Understandably so, her hair and make-up had been sloppier the last few months. Considering that she’d lost her best friend she seemed to be doing fine but Natalie didn't even believe for a second that that was the case.   
She sighed, “fine. I hope this really does save someone’s life,” she opened a drawer and put a checklist in front of her daughter, “here.” 

Lydia mouthed a thank you and leaned at the table as she skimmed through the records. Not a single person was marked absent. She double-checked, slower this time. Her expectations were met with disappointment.   
She took a deep breath and texted the others. Hopefully, their luck was better than hers. 

***  
At the forest, Kira was circling a small area, “this where they found the body?”   
“Yup,” Malia answered, sure of herself.   
They both stood quietly between the tall trees. It looked like nothing had happened. The scene had been cleaned but it still looked as if not a single leaf was out of place. After a moment's silence, Malia noticed Kira looking at her.   
“What?”   
“Where do we go?” Kira asked.  
“I don’t know, this was your idea.”   
“Can’t you smell anything?”  
“What am I supposed to smell? The rain washed everything away.”   
Kira looked around hopelessly when a sudden epiphany occurred, “They said the victim drowned right? So maybe we should be looking for water?”   
“Yeah but the body wasn’t near one”  
“There could be something near the water to give us a clue.”   
“Okay,” Malia shrugged and set a course towards the pond. She already knew the forest like the back of her hand, so she didn't have any worries as they crossed the reserve. 

“How bad do you think this is going to get?” Kira nervously asked. She wasn’t sure if anyone had the strength to fight anything like the nogitsune again.   
“Probably not as bad as you say the dark spirit was.”   
“Scott keeps saying something about ‘regression to the means’ I can’t say the last few months have been that great so things will probably get better right?”   
“They probably won’t get worse. But then again we don’t know what this is. It   
could be a deadly virus that slowly kills everyone.” 

Malia turned around for a moment to look at Kira. Noticing the distress she’d caused she said, “If things have to meet in the middle then things have to get better for the scale to tip the other way. We’ll be fine”  
“Yeah, I guess so.” 

They reached their destination a few minutes later. The pond was quite large. Just a bit smaller than the swimming pools at the school. However, it looked really deep, so deep that it could reach the center of the earth.   
It was in the middle of an opening surrounded by the tall trees and a few empty beer bottles. Clearly, people had made good use of this beautiful place. 

There didn’t seem to be anything out of place. The light wind gently dragged the water, creating small waves.   
Kira bent down and touched the water. It was cool. Something about this place made her feel really relaxed. 

“Well? Smell anything weird?”   
Malia breathed in deeply. All she could smell was the freshness of the water and grass, “No not really. It just smells like a pond.”   
“Great. This was useless wasn’t it?” Kira said as she looked around the clearing.   
“At least now we know there isn’t anything weird here.”   
“Yeah, I guess. Hopefully, the others find something.”   
As if on cue both the girl’s phones chimed. It was from Lydia.   
“I guess it’s Scott and Stiles now.” Malia sighed, “come on we should probably be getting back.” 

As they started to walk back Malia suddenly stopped.   
“What is it?” Kira asked.  
“Did you hear that?”   
Kira shocked her and squinted her eyes to see if anything was there.   
“There!” Malia pointed and started to run.  
“Malia wait!” 

As Kira hurried after Malia, something caught her attention. Something white could be seen behind the bushes a bit further than they were. She stopped and called after Malia who was getting further away.

Kira couldn’t help but move towards the bushes. As she got closer an odd scent filled the air around her. Dreading what she’d find she pulled at leaves apart and gasped at the sight before her.

*** 

Stiles turned the jeep’s key with frustration.   
“Oh come on!” he said as he gave it another turn but his attempts were futile. He sighed and put his head on the steering wheel.   
“Maybe one of the pipes burst again?” Scott suggested.   
“No, I just taped them yesterday,” Stiles said as he looked up. He turned the key again just in case but it didn’t work. It felt like they’d never leave Scott’s driveway.   
He gave up and got out of the car to inspect the problem.   
Everything seemed fine.   
Scott also got out of the car and joined him.  
“Anything?”   
“Nope,” Stiles said and closed the jeep’s hood a bit too forcefully. Scott raised an eyebrow.   
“Are you okay dude?” he asked. He knew that he was probably far from okay. He could sense the waves of frustration and tension coming off of him.   
“Fine.” Stiles lied and got back in the car to avoid Scott but he just followed him into the car.   
“Come on man talk to me. I don’t know how to help you.”  
Scott was starting to get on his nerves. Stiles understood his motive but he didn’t wanna keep talking about this. People couldn’t stop bringing it up as if he didn’t relive everything in his head enough.   
He wished that everyone would just forget.   
“What do you want me to say?” he said a bit more aggressively than he had intended. He continued after softening his voice, “That I can’t stop blaming myself for everything? That I wish It’d been me instead of Allison?,” he felt Scott flinch at the mention of her name, “Because I do! There isn’t a single person that I haven’t hurt and now I’m paying the price. So can we just-,” he held his tears in, he didn’t want to appear even weaker than he seemed now, “can we just not talk about this? There’s nothing to help.”   
Scott tried his best, not to imagine himself holding on to Allison’s cold and lifeless body but when he tried to block it out he was met with the blurred memory of hearing her heart give its last beat. He pulled himself together. She was gone now, but he wouldn’t lose his best friend too.  
“You know that it’s not your fault right? I don’t blame you, neither does Argent, or anyone. You fought as hard as you could and so did we. There wasn’t anything that could’ve been done.”

Stiles sighed, “I should’ve fought harder. I should’ve noticed that something was wrong earlier and I should’ve stopped it from taking over me in the first place. All of this happened because I was too weak. I-”   
Scott interrupted him, “Remember what you told your dad after he found out about the supernatural? That he shouldn’t get stuck on the ifs and instead try to help the ones he can now? So should you. Let’s stop whoever’s doing this before it can harm anyone else”   
Stiles gave him a sad smile and turned the keys again.   
“Wow it would’ve been really poetic if that worked.” he scoffed and Scott laughed.   
Thankfully the car roared alive when he tried it again and the teens finally got on their way. 

It took them about ten minutes to get to the station. As they made their way to the door Scott said, “Your dad didn’t seem too keen to let us into the case the other day. Are sure he’ll let us see the missing person’s reports?”   
“That’s why we got this,” Stiles raised the bag of junk food.

The sheriff was at this desk, scratching his head while looking at a pile of papers.   
Without knocking Stiles entered his office and Noah’s head shot up in surprise.  
“Hey kid,” he said and buried his head back in his work.   
“I have a surprise,” he shuffled his way to his father and put the bag of food on his desk.  
The Sheriff looked at his son with disbelief. He peeked through the bag and saw the curly fries and hamburger.   
“Alright, what’s the catch?”   
“What catch? There is no catch I’m just a teen bringing his pops some food”   
Scott retained himself from smiling. Mr. Stilinki raised an eyebrow and looked at both the teens. Stiles copied his dad’s expression and returned the look.   
“If you think I’m gonna-”   
Stiles interrupted his dad, “Lydia had a premonition, someone’s in danger.”   
The Sheriff looked at Scott, “Is this true?”   
“Yeah, whatever it was I felt it too. Lydia said that she felt like someone’s going to die. Whoever they are they might’ve been reported missing.”   
Noah sighed, “Sorry to disappoint you two but there hasn’t been a new report in a long time.”   
“What? Not a single person went missing?” Stiles insisted.  
“No.”  
“Any new developments that you’d like to share?”   
The sheriff made a gruntled noise of indecisiveness.   
“Come on dad.”  
He sighed, he knew his son would find out somehow eventually, “They ran the autopsy again. They found a small puncture wound between the 7th and 8th ribs on the right side. Almost invisible. We still have no idea what might have caused.”   
“How deep is it?” Scott asked.  
“Almost to the lungs. The ‘injury’ would have to be a lot bigger if it were caused by a needle. This, this is barely a flesh wound.” 

Both the teens’ phones pinged.   
“Nothing from Lydia either,” Scott said as looked at the others in disappointment. A few moments later the silence was broken by a frantic call from Kira.   
“You found what!” he asked in alarm.   
Stiles asked him what was going on but Scott paid no attention.  
“Slow down, where are you guys?”   
He hung up the phone in shock.   
“Is everything alright?” asked the sheriff.   
“Kira and Malia, they found another body”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello. For anyone actually following this, I'm sorry I disappeared! However, I'm back and I'll keep uploading! 
> 
> This is a re-upload of the chapter I uploaded yesterday because after about 15 minutes I realized that I had MAJORLY messed up so if anyone had seen that by any chance, please forget that last scene. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! Comments and kudos are very much appreciated, have a nice week! :)

In a span of just a few hours, the body had been transported to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and the crime scene had been fully analyzed. Only a few deputies lingered to see if anyone would turn up or if they’d missed any clues. 

The body belonged to that of a woman in her mid-thirties. The station had posted an alert to see if anyone could identify her but no one had come forward yet. 

When found, the body was in the exact same manner as the previous one. There were no marks pertaining to abuse or anything that actually connected it to homicide. 

XXX

Three of the teens returned to the pond the next day.   
“We’re probably not going to find anything,” Malia said as she looked at the water.   
“That’s what you said last time,” Kira replied.  
“The body was soaking wet when you found it, there has to be something here.” Scott implied and inhaled again in hopes of finding something. This time his mother had allowed them to get the woman’s scent but the shapeshifters couldn’t find it anywhere in the forest.   
“How about that thing I saw? I couldn’t go after it but I’m sure it was running away from here.” Malia asked.   
“How much of it did you see?” Scott replied with a question.   
Malia crossed her arms and looked in the general direction where she chased the probable culprit, “Not much. It was really fast, I barely got close before Kira called me,” she paused for a moment, “The only thing I could tell that it was short.”   
“That’s not really helpful.”   
“That’s still more than you and Stiles found out.”   
“No one was reported missing when she was killed so we know they probably do their killing pretty quickly.”   
“Right so what leaves a very small hole, drowns their victims seemingly without touching them, and is small and fast?” Kira questioned but no one could respond. 

XXX

As Stiles clicked away on his laptop Lydia lay on his bed and flipped through the pages of the bestiary.   
“There’s nothing here,” she sighed.   
“There’s gotta be something,” Stiles replied as he vigorously bounced his legs.   
“Well there isn’t. I’ve been through the whole book twice.”   
Stiles swirled around, “This is fantastic. Two dead people already and we have absolutely nothing.”   
“They haven’t even identified the second body, there could be something there.”   
“I hope so,” he said as he looked at his empty walls. Some of the blue paint had chipped off and if you looked close enough you could see the little holes left by the pushpins.   
He stood up and went to inspect the hole.  
“A puncture wound, almost invisible,” he repeated his father’s words.   
Lydia sensed an epiphany coming, “what is it?” she asked.   
Stiles ran his fingers over one of the holes and turned around, “We assumed that the killed injected something. Maybe like an untraceable paralytic that gave the appearance of drowning. But-”  
Lydia finished his sentence, “what if they extracted something instead?”   
“Exactly. But what could someone take from the lungs that are small enough?”   
“The smallest constituent in the lungs is the alveoli, they’re about 0.2 millimeters and no one would notice if a few were missing.”  
“But why would anyone want that?”   
“Why does anyone want anything?”   
Stiles sarcastically laughed and asked, “is there anything in the bestiary about that?”   
As he returned to his laptop Lydia said, “No. Nothing about things that inject or extract things from you either.” 

After a few minutes, Stiles slid down his chair in defeat, “Zip, zero, nothing!”   
“We just need more information.”   
“Yeah for that we need the others to actually find something,” Stiles sighed.   
“Did your dad say anything else?”   
“No. They can’t even find any of the victim’s families so we don’t have any history either.”   
“Neither of these people have a family?”   
“Yeah but two’s a coincidence-”   
As Stiles went on Lydia’s hearing zoned out. She could see his mouth moving but nothing came out of it. The only she heard was… running water? 

That was interrupted by a big splash and suddenly Lydia found herself by a large body of water. She felt something drive her forward. She didn’t wanna go near it but it was like someone was controlling her limbs for her.   
The push stopped when she came to the very edge of the pond.  
When nothing else happened she hesitantly put her hand in the water which upon closer inspection didn’t look so blue. She cupped some of it into her hand and emptied it all back in fear.   
It wasn’t water, it was blood.   
She tried to move back but her attempts were futile when a slimy hand reached out and pulled her in. She screamed. 

XXX

Fast-forwarding a few hours of useless searching, now, the three teens sat in front of the pond in frustration. They’d tried everything from following scents to tracking Malia’s footsteps from the previous day. The only conclusion that they reached was that they were simply insane.   
It was like nothing had happened.   
“We should probably get going,” Kira said.   
“No, there has to be something we’re missing,” Scott insisted, “whatever this was it must’ve left something behind.”  
His phone chimed. Stiles was texting him to get to his house pronto.   
“You should go alone. We’ll keep searching. If I can find it we can follow the route it took to run away.” Malia said.  
“Are you sure?”  
Kira reached out to him, “Yeah we’ll be okay.” 

XXX

“Lydia? Lydia! Lydia, what is it?” Stiles shook her but she didn’t respond. She still hadn’t recovered from the shock of what had just happened. The hand had pulled her under the blood and she’d felt herself drowning. It felt like her head was exploding.   
She gathered her strength, “They’ve only just begun.”  
“What, what does that mean? Lydia, what did you see?” 

She knew what she saw wasn’t real but she couldn't get the sick feeling of death off her chest. It was just like the same icky feeling she had in the tunnels, something she never wanted to feel again.  
“I saw its hand, it wasn’t human. I don’t know what it was but it has to be at that pond.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it took a bit longer to get this out but I think this might be the longest chapter yet! Thanks for your patience, I hope you like it! Things are going to speed up in the next chapter.  
> I'm not sure how long this fic is going to be but it definitely has a lot more chapters to go.
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this and I didn't write OOC, kudos and comments are very much appreciated. Have a nice weekend :)

“Guys what did you find?” Scott asked as he entered the Stilinksi’s living room.  
“It was more a supernatural feeling than a solid fact” Stiles replied.  
Scott raised his eyebrow, “Lydia? Did you see something?”  
“There was the pond and the killer was there. I only saw its hand but it was coming out of the water.”  
“The ‘water’ here was blood by the way,” Stiles commented.  
“What does that mean?”  
“We don’t know, but it’s going to take more people and I’m not sure they’re going to make it”  
Scott ran his fingers through his hair.  
Lydia hesitantly looked at Stiles. She hadn’t told him about being brought to the edge unwillingly. She knew it was too much like mind control. It explained the victim not putting up a fight but she didn’t want to freak him out. But what if something happened to him because she didn’t tell them everything? She’d never forgive herself.  
“Lydia are you okay?” Stiles asked.  
“Yeah, could you maybe get me some water? I’m not feeling too good.”  
Stiles nodded and raced to the kitchen. 

Scott knew there was something else Lydia didn’t want Stiles to hear.  
“What is it?” he asked, with the hopes that Lydia would tell him. 

Her hands went up to her hair and she started twisting the ends. She looked at Scott with lines of worry stretching across her face.  
“There’s something else. When I saw the pond, something was pulling me to it. It was like something was in my head.”  
Scott knit his eyebrows, “Do you mean like,” he didn’t need to finish the sentence, Lydia was already nodding.  
“Is he, you know, do you feel anything?” Scott whispered.  
“I- I don’t know what I feel but it isn’t good. I don’t know what we should do.”  
“He has a right to know. He’s been exhausting himself to figure out what’s going on. This-”

Scott stopped when Stiles came back with a big glass of water.  
“Did something happen?” Stiles asked.  
Neither of them said anything.  
“Why are you looking at me like I got hit by a bus?”  
Lydia looked at Scott and nodded but she couldn’t help the dread building inside of her.

As Scott explained everything Stiles felt his anxiety starting to act up. Mind controlling people mauling monsters. It felt too much like the nogitsune. What if he was controlled again? These things only seemed to control people to draw them in the forest but who knew what happened after that?  
He looked at his friends. They were expecting him to break down. Be weak. He wouldn’t. He took a deep breath and swallowed.  
“That’s good.”  
That wasn’t the response Scott was expecting at all, “What?”  
“It’s another clue, right? It could help us find what it is,” he looked at the glass of water.  
He remembered himself a year ago, talking to Ms. Morrel. He’d told her how painful drowning actually was. Regardless of Lydia’s feelings, he was being unreasonable. Scott and the others would protect him if anything happened. He tried to reassure himself but the evil voice at the back of his head was too loud. They weren’t able to protect him when the nogitsune first possessed him. 

However calm Stiles looked, both the teens could read him.  
“Yeah, I guess,” Scott staggered, “are you okay?”  
“Why wouldn’t I be?” 

He couldn’t say anything. Scott smelled the room filling with Stiles’ frustration.

“We thought that maybe-”  
Stiles interrupted her, “maybe what?"  
"I don't know, just that-" she looked down at her feet.  
Stiles drew in a long breath. He said he'd keep calm but he wasn't sure he could keep that promise. He had to fix this.  
"No this is exactly what I’m talking about! I’m sick of people treating me like this. I get it okay, I’m the human, I’m the weak one that has the most blood on his hands-”  
“Stiles that’s not what-” Scott tried to calm him.  
“Not what you think? Do you think I don’t notice people looking at me like I might slit my wrists at any moment?” he turned to Lydia, “that I don’t notice you flinching every time I move too suddenly? That I don’t notice you seeing the nogitsune in my eyes every time we talk?”  
He stepped forward and Lydia reflexively took a step back. She was scared. Even if it was for a fraction of a second Stiles didn’t miss it.  
“See?” he exclaimed, “maybe instead of fussing over me, you should all deal with your own problems first.” His words were full of spite and anger. He noticed how tightly he was gripping the glass but it was too late. The cheap Walmart glass broke, spilling water and blood all over the floor.  
Stiles cried out as he held his hand and ran to the kitchen, leaving a trail of red behind him. 

Scott ran to help him as Lydia stood in shock, looking at the broken glass.  
“Dude are you okay?”  
He was pressing down at his palm with paper towels. The blood wouldn’t stop gushing out. Stiles threw the towels on the counter and grabbed new ones which were completely stained in a matter of seconds.  
“Maybe we should go to the E.R. my mom is still working,” Scott suggested.  
“No no, it’s fine” Stiles winced as he lifted the towels. Two deep cuts were spanning through his palm unevenly.  
Scott reached out to take his pain but Stiles pulled away, “it’s fine,” he reached for more towels.  
“Here, just let me help”  
“I said it’s fine,” Stiles kept pressure on the cut but the bleeding persisted. The blood had run down his forearm, t-shirt, and was dripping on the floor.  
Scott didn’t raise his voice, he pushed down the panic and kept his voice as calm as he could, “Stiles.”  
Stiles sighed, “fine,” he took more towel and started making his way to the door, “I’ll drive myself, you should go.”  
“No way, I’ll take you before you collapse on the wheel from blood loss.”  
“It’s not that bad.” 

Scott ignored that and ran to the living room to get Lydia.  
“I’m taking Stiles to the E.R., are you coming ?”  
“I think I’m just gonna go home. I’ll look through the bestiary again.”  
Scott knew that she wanted to come but he didn’t push her. She probably needed some time alone

XXX

“Wanna explain how this happened?” Melissa asked as she prepped the needle.  
“I broke a glass.”  
She sent him an unbelieving look, “I dropped it and it exploded when I picked it up.”  
Melissa had been a nurse longer than Stiles had been alive. She could tell that that wasn’t what happened both from her son’s face and from the cuts. She didn’t push it. 

She brought the needle to the cut, “you might wanna look away.”  
Stiles didn’t break his gaze.  
“How come you’re not afraid of needles anymore?”  
Stiles scoffed, “After everything I’ve seen, they just don’t seem as scary anymore.”

Melissa sighed, “you guys are pushing yourselves too hard. I mean you’re just high schoolers. Nevermind that, none of you should have to see these things.”  
“We don’t really have a choice. If we don’t push then this whole town will be purged.”  
“I know, but there’s nothing wrong in asking for help.” 

XXX

Stiles sighed when he saw his dad’s car parked in the driveway. He was hoping he’d have time to clean the mess he made before the Sheriff came home but alas, luck wasn’t on his side. 

He nervously entered, half expecting his father to be waiting for him with his arms crossed but instead he was at the kitchen table going over files.  
“Oh hey kid”  
“Hey dad,” he said while looking around. All of the bloodied towels had disappeared and the blood had been cleaned up.  
“Do you know this kid?” he raised the headshot of a boy around his age.  
“Yeah, Damon, I think he’s in my econ class, why?”  
“His dad’s saying he didn’t come home after school.”  
Stiles crossed his arms, “Do you think it’s related to the murders?”  
“I don’t know. The previous victims were twice his age, it breaks the pattern.”  
He looked up at Stiles and his eyes widened when he saw his hand and bloodstained shirt, “What happened?”  
“It’s fine, I just broke a glass.”  
The Sheriff sighed, “Did you see Melisa?”  
“Yeah it’s not that bad, just a few stitches, and insurance covered it.”  
“Well, why didn’t you call me?”  
“It wasn’t bad, I didn’t wanna worry you.”  
Noah rubbed his forehead, “What did we say about being open?”  
“I didn’t think it was a big deal!”  
“You’re my son, of course, it’s important!”  
“Sorry.” 

As Stiles went to his room he pulled out his phone to text the others about Damon. Halfway through he wondered if he should be saying anything. He should apologize first, right?  
He threw himself on the bed and put his head over his head. He had been such a drama queen! His friends were just trying to look out for him and he attacked them. What was wrong with him? He was so mean to Lydia, she must be feeling awful. 

XXX

The sun rose like it did every morning.  
The people of Beacon Hills went about their business as usual. Runners, taking the same route, employees waiting in line for their coffees. Students racing to school and going to their morning classes as if nothing had happened.  
Only the pack knew, only they walked the corridors with their senses dialed up to eleven.  
After Scott and the others returned from the forest empty-handed they’d met with the others to talk about Lydia’s vision that night. However with the lack of information they hadn’t come up with anything useful. 

As Lydia walked through the gates of the school she felt her muscles tensing every time she walked by the spot where Aiden had fallen. Obviously, there wasn’t any blood left but Lydia could see the dark stain.  
She held her breath as she circled around that area and entered the school. Stiles was waiting by her locker.  
“Hey.”  
“Hey,” Lydia internally cringed at the tension between them. She wondered if Stiles could feel it too. Of course, she didn’t blame him for what happened, how could she? He was right, she couldn’t help but imagine the nogitsune wearing his face, holding her captive in the tunnels. If she hadn’t been a smartass maybe the Oni could’ve killed it and Allison would be alive.  
She looked at Stiles and the image of him collapsing on the tunnels passed her mind. She quickly turned back to her locker and tried distracting herself. She didn’t ever want to see something like that happen and the argument they had last night wasn’t exactly helping.  
“I just wanted to apologize for last night. I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have I don’t what I was thinking, I was stupid and I never should’ve said that stuff out loud, much less confront you like that-”  
Lydia interrupted him, “Stiles it’s fine. I get it, it’s, you don’t need to apologize.”  
“No, you’re still human, you have a right to feel that way and it’s normal, and I-”  
“Stiles, seriously it’s okay. I thought I was doing the right thing and I wasn’t. You were right to be frustrated. We all have to deal with our problems.”  
Stiles didn’t know what to say. He still hated himself for getting so angry. They were just trying to look out for him.  
“Also thank you for cleaning up my mess. You might’ve saved my father from a heart attack”  
Lydia smiled, “Is your hand okay?”  
Stiles looked down at the bandages wrapped around his hand. 12 stitches.  
“Yeah, it’s fine. Now I’ll have a conversation starter while meeting new people.”  
Lydia smiled more sincerely this time, “I’m gonna be late, see you in math?”  
“Yeah.”

When Stiles made it to the classroom he dropped his bag on the floor and took a seat behind Scott, “Hey.”  
“Hey, are you good?”  
“Yeah, I’m sorry about yesterday, I was a major jerk.”  
Scott turned around to face him, “It’s okay, I get it.”  
Stiles smiled and leaned closer, “You know that guy Damon from econ? Apparently, he didn’t come home last night.”  
“Do you think he was taken?”  
“Could be.” 

Kira came and sat next to Scott, “Hey.”  
Both the teens greeted her and updated her on the recent news. 

XXX

Afterschool Malia and Scott broke into Damon’s locker. It hadn’t rained again and he’d just disappeared so they thought that they might be able to find his scent.  
Fortunately for them, he’d left his jacket at school.  
They met the others at the parking lot.  
“We got it!” Malia exclaimed, “now what’s the plan?”  
“The three of us are gonna go to the station and convince Parrish to help us and you’re gonna try to track down Damon,” Kira explained.  
“We’ll call if we find something,” said Scott.  
Stiles gestured to his jeep, “ladies?” 

XXX

It didn’t take long for them to reach the sheriff's station. No one had talked and the whole trip the car was filled with awkwardness. As soon as Stiles parked everyone leaped out of the car. 

A few of the deputies greeted them as they made their way to Parrish’s desk. Everyone had gotten used to the teens being here so often. Except for the next replacements, no one questioned it. 

Parrish didn’t notice them until Lydia spoke up.  
“Hey, Parrish”  
“Hey guys, what’re you doing here?”  
“We were wondering if you could help us out with something?”  
He sighed, “I’m not giving you the case files.”  
“Not a problem!” Stiles moved closer to his desk, “we already know everything about that”  
“What do you want then?”  
“Can we see Damon Patterson’s files?” Lydia pleaded.  
“No why would I let you do that?” he scoffed.  
“My dad approves.”  
Parrish shot an unbelieving look, “I distinctly remember him telling you not to get involved.”  
“Yes, that was before two murders and a missing person.”  
“The Sherrif’s really okay with this?” he raised an eyebrow  
“Yes! I’d tell you to ask right now but he’s in a meeting”  
Parrish longly looked at the office door. He’d heard about how convincing the teens would be. He wasn’t sure if they were telling the truth or not. He observed them for a moment. They seemed genuine. 

He remembered all the things they went through almost a month ago. He didn’t know know how they were holding it together. They could use this as a distraction.  
Though he sure wasn’t sure what a great idea it was he printed out Damon’s file and handed it to them.

The pack thanked him in unison and left the station before Parrish could change his mind. 

XXX

Back in the reserve Scott and Malia had caught a trail of Damon’s scent, barely hanging in the air.  
It had started from the school’s parking lot and lead into the forest.  
“I think I lost him,” Scott sighed.  
Malia ignored him continued to search, “his scent disappears just above this line. It doesn’t fade away or anything, it just disappears.” 

Scott came to the same conclusion a few moments later. He sighed again loudly.  
“Why do you keep doing that?” Malia asked slightly annoyed.  
“Doing what?”  
“You keep sighing.”  
“I just hate that we still haven’t found anything. Two people are dead and Damon's probably going to be the third one. We can’t even find the bodies anymore.” 

Malia looked around awkwardly. In the short time she’d spent as a human, she hadn’t really been trained to comfort people.  
“Kira and I found that woman’s body and Damon probably hasn’t been killed yet.”  
“But he will be”  
“How many deaths did it take you to figure out who was sacrificing those people?” She remembered Stiles telling her about this when filling her in on everything.  
“What?”  
“That teacher that was actually a dark druid. How many people did she kill?”  
“Twelve”  
“How many people would’ve died if you didn’t stop her?”  
Scott knew what she was trying to do. She wasn’t right.  
“A lot less! If we hadn’t sacrificed ourselves then we never would’ve drawn all these supernaturals here. She would’ve killed the Deucalion and left. Whenever we try to help somehow everything gets worse.” 

Malia cringed. This wasn’t where she hoped the question would lead.  
“That’s not true. You helped save a lot of people. The alpha and kanima would’ve killed everyone without you.”  
“I guess. I just wish we could do better. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost the people we have.”  
“But they’re dead. You can’t bring them back. In the wild, we would grieve and forget about it. Sometimes we’d even eat them if hunting was bad that season.” 

Scott’s feelings still hadn’t changed but he appreciated Malia’s tries. His feeling wouldn’t change until they stopped whoever was doing this.  
“Thanks,” he smiled, “Come on we should meet the others.”

XXX

Lydia, Kira, and Stiles flipped through Damon’s records as they waited for the others.  
“Did you know he took part in a B&E a year ago?” Stiles asked.  
“He doesn’t seem like the type,” Kira answered.  
“The charges were dropped”

Stiles spoke up again a few minutes later, “Woah unlucky guy.”  
“What?” Lydia asked.  
Kira took the file, “His mom and boyfriend got killed in a car crash the same year.”  
“Wait, that’s the third one,” Lydia said.  
“Third one of what?” Kira intrigued.  
Stiles paced around the room, “The third victim with dead or m.i.a. family members.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah hello! Another relatively long chapter! I've been looking super forward to uploading this chapter so I really really hope you enjoy it.  
> Any feedback will be very much appreciated.   
> Have a great week! :)

“Okay, so what do we know so far?” Malia quizzed.  
“Whatever this is, it goes after people with passed family, harvests something really small and,” Lydia forced herself not to look at Stiles, “uses some form kind of mind control.”  
“And does its killing quickly somewhere around the pond,” Stiles added, not seeming to mind Lydia’s comment.  
“They might also be able to hide their and their victim’s scent,” Scott suggested.   
Stiles bounced his leg, “You know what I just realized?”   
The pack looked at him with curiosity.  
“All of us except Kira have absent parents.”   
“Lydia and I don’t either, both of our parents are divorced not dead,” Scott argued  
“Yeah but they’re pretty much out of your lives right? It’s almost like they’re dead. This thing might just need the emotional longing for someone.”  
“We could be potential targets,” Malia said.  
“Yeah but come on over half the people in this town don’t have both of their parents. Lawyers and marriage counselors thrive in Beacon Hills,” Stiles said.   
“Doesn’t mean we’re safe. We haven’t even seen it, much less know how to fight them.” 

XXX

That night unknown to Stiles, Malia had silently crawled into his bed with the goal of keeping him safe. She knew about how he’d nearly frozen to death in the forest so as soon as they’d discovered what type of people this thing targets she’d felt an undeniable urge to protect him.   
She let out a breath of relief when he didn’t wake when she came in. The last thing she wanted was to freak him out. She quickly fell asleep under the warm covers. 

Sleep hadn’t come as easy for Stiles. Every time he closed his eyes at night he still feared he’d open them somewhere else. He had a bottle of sleeping pills by his bedside which was half empty by now. 

He was trying to walk through a blizzard, barely able to see where he was going. With every step he took, he felt something behind him but he wouldn’t turn around. As he kept walking the snow got deep and deeper. He stopped only after the snow had reached his upper thighs.   
He felt something grabbing at his legs and shoulders. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled out an oh so familiar katana. As he swung it around, seemingly in random directions, invisible bodies fell to the ground, covering the white snow with a dark red.   
At this point, the blizzard had gotten so powerful that he couldn’t move without being swept away.   
Something pushed him. He could smell something terrible in the darkness. His eyes watered. After he adjusted to the darkness he was faced with hundreds of people whose corpses were rotting away. They all had slash marks around their bodies.

The real Stiles awoke with a start and promptly turned on the light. A feminine voice came from his left.  
“You okay? Stiles?”   
“Yeah, I was just dreaming.”

It took him a few seconds to realize what had just happened. Again. When he did, he flew out of bed screaming, keeping his hands in the air threateningly.   
“Woah Stiles it’s just me!”   
It didn’t seem to matter to him.  
“No, no, no! Stay away from me!” 

In his panic, when Malia reached out to touch him, he ran out of his room and locked himself in the bathroom.   
She obviously ran after him. She could clearly hear Stiles’ sobs and noes from the other side. She didn’t know what to do. Why did he react like this? Was there something she didn’t know? 

Suddenly she was pushed away by the Sheriff, “Son? Stiles let me in,” he banged on the door and turned to Malia, “What’re you doing here?”   
Stiles’ cries suddenly grew louder at his father’s words  
He spoke again before she could respond, “get me the keys from the drawer over there,” he pointed to a sideboard. 

Noah put his ear against the door, he could hear his son’s muffled yet broken sounds behind the wood separating them.   
Malia came back with five keys a few moments later, “I didn’t know which one.”   
The Sheriff grabbed one and put it in the keyhole, “Stiles I’m coming in.”  
He heard Stiles yell, “No! No! Get out!” he had to stop between his quick breaths, “Don’t! Please!” he sobbed again, “Get out! Don’t come in!”

Though it broke his heart the Sheriff opened the door, preparing himself whatever sight might be in there. Without hesitation, he ran to his son and embraced him tightly.   
“Shh! Hey, hey, hey, hey! It’s okay! it’s okay! You’re okay!” 

Stiles didn’t seem to hear his father’s words. He tried to get out of his grip. He wasn’t going to be okay, it’d come back, it was going to get in and he was going to kill everyone.   
He started hitting himself in an effort to wake up. It wasn’t real. He had to wake up to keep it out. As he kept thrashing around and hit himself harder. The Sheriff grabbed his hands and held them to his chest.   
Malia was still in shock by the sight before her. She’d comforted Stiles during bad days before but they were no way near this. She desperately wanted to help but she didn’t know what she could do without making things worse. She didn’t know it was this bad.

Between Stiles hitting himself and screaming she had a eureka moment. She distinctly remembered Scott talking about nightmares.   
She turned to the Sheriff and interrupted Noah’s coos, “He thinks he’s asleep!” 

He gestured for Malia to hold him and they switched places. He sat down in front of Stiles and raised his fists, “Stiles look at me, look at my hands.”   
He started counting slowly. With each finger, Stiles calmed more and fell silent when Noah was done.   
He slowly got his hands free from Malia’s grip and counted his own fingers. He had ten. It was real. He looked at his dad and Malia and thought of his unnecessary reaction.   
“Oh god,” he croaked and buried himself in his father’s shoulder unable to stop his tears.

It was another fifteen minutes before he calmed down completely. He and Malia sat side by side leaning to the bathtub.   
“I’m sorry,” Stiles broke the silence.  
“What happened?”  
“Last time I woke up from a nightmare with someone sleeping next to me like that I got possessed.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
Stiles rubbed the aching spot on his forehead. It was slowly starting to bruise. 

His father came back from the kitchen with water and a Tylenol.   
“It’s only four a.m.”  
Stiles swallowed the pill, “I can’t go back to sleep.”

XXX

Stiles slammed the door of his jeep and yawned loudly.   
“Did you sleep at all?” Malia climbed out of the front seat.   
“Yeah, just tired,” he lied even though he knew Malia could tell. But there was no point in not trying. 

They were greeted by Scott when they walked into the school.   
“Still no news from Damon?” he asked.  
“Nope,” Stiles said as he went to his locker.   
Scott observed Stiles for a moment, “you look terrible.”  
“And I still hate your tattoo,” he scoffed.  
“What happened to your forehead?”  
“I couldn’t sleep.”  
“So you hit yourself in the head with a baseball bat?”  
Stiles laughed mockingly and changed the subject, “Maybe we should talk to Deaton. Where is he anyway? I miss his riddled answers”   
“I’m not sure, I didn’t see him after, you know. He might be back.”   
“We should check afterschool. He might actually know what we’re dealing with.”  
“Have you heard of Derek?”  
Stiles tensed at his name, “No.”   
“We should see him first. He probably isn’t too happy that his last beta left.”  
“That implies that he’s normally happy.” 

Scott observed his friend for a moment and stopped. He smelled off. The negative emotions that usually clung on to him all the time had gotten stronger. He could tell something more that happened last night  
“Dude are you sure you’re okay?”  
“Yes, I just had a bad night. It's fine.”  
Scott recognized this as the ‘I’m lying, please shut up’ tone. After the other day he didn’t want to start a conversation about feelings but he could clearly see something was wrong. It was his job to help.  
“Was it about the, you know, the thing?”  
Stiles ignored it.  
“Do you wanna talk about it? I dreamt about Allison the other day, it felt terrible. I can’t imagine yours was very pleasant either.”  
Stiles thought back to that night, “No it wasn’t. But I know it was just a dream. That’s what matters” 

XXX

The pack met at the parking lot once again after school. Kira and Scott left together on Scott’s bike. Stiles asked Malia if she was coming with him but she chose to go with Lydia instead. He couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t want to see him after last night either. 

Everyone got into their cars and left to regroup at Derek’s loft. 

Scott and Kira made it there first. Derek groggily got up to answer the knock on the door. He smelled the teens halfway there and just told them to come in.   
“What are you doing here?”   
“We haven’t seen you since Isaac left, we wanted to see how you were,” Scott said.  
“I’m doing fine, how’re things with Allison?”   
Both the teens looked at their feet, “We’re getting over it,” Kira said. 

Malia and Lydia came a few minutes later. They repeated the same awkward small talk.   
“Who are you?” Derek asked Malia.  
“I could say the same for you,” she answered.   
“This is Malia Tate, she’s new,” Lydia said.  
“The coyote girl?”   
Malia growled softly. 

They sat around awkwardly for another ten minutes until Derek said, “I’m assuming you’re already involved in the new murders?”  
The pack nodded.  
“Do you know anything about them?” Lydia asked.   
“I haven’t really been keeping up. What do you know?”

After Lydia explained everything Derek scoffed, “It sounds like a siren.”   
“They’re similar but I don’t they are. A siren would mark you and eat you. This is different.” said Lydia.   
Derek looked around for a moment.  
“Where’s the hyperactive spaz?”   
Lydia furrowed her eyebrows, “He should’ve been here by now.”   
“His jeep probably broke down again, I’ll call him,” Scott said and dialed his number. It went unanswered. He tried again and was once more greeted by Stiles’ upbeat voice mail.

XXX

Stiles blinked into clarity when he was startled by his ringtone. He missed it by mere seconds. He couldn’t help the panic building up in his chest when he looked around and saw that he was deep in the reserve rather than the parking lot he was in moments ago.  
“No, no not this again!”  
His mind went to the nogitsune immediately but after looking around more carefully he saw the pond beyond the trees.  
“Oh my god, I’m gonna die. No, no, no!”  
He turned around and started running in the opposite direction. He wasn’t going to die, not today.   
He took out his phone and dialed Scott. He picked up before the second ring.   
“Dude where are you?”  
“Scott, pond, monster!”   
“Okay just focus on not getting caught, we’re coming.”  
Stiles didn’t respond.  
“Stiles? Are you there? Are you okay?”   
The phone fell to the forest floor. 

“Okay” wasn’t the first word that would come to mind to explain how Stiles felt. His initial panic was fading away and he had stopped resisting. It was like someone else was moving his limbs for him. He felt warm for the first time in ages. He was happy. The thought of getting murdered didn’t cross his mind at all.

When he made it to the edge of the pond he stopped himself again. He couldn’t let this happen. He tried to run away but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t control his own body.   
As he kept resisting he felt someone touch his shoulder. It was a beautiful woman in her late thirties.   
“Mom?”  
The woman nodded and took Stiles’ hand. He stopped resisting once more and got deeper in the water and dived. He didn’t come back up.

XXX

The pack and Derek made it to the reserve as fast as they could. They followed the GPS on Stiles’ phone and once again found themselves at the pond.   
“No no no!” Scott said as he looked around with fear. He’d gotten so close to losing his best friend before, he couldn’t go through this again, “spread out and look for clues.”

“I can’t find his scent,” Derek walked around the pond, “there’s nothing.”   
“Yeah, once the victim gets close enough the thing wipes out their scent,” said Lydia.

Kira went back to where they’d entered the pond. She looked around the leaves for a while.  
“Guys I found his phone,” she wiped off the dirt with her sleeve. 

Derek bent down and touched the water. It was very cool.  
“Have you ever searched inside the pond?”  
“We didn’t think it was a good idea,” said Malia.  
“If the victims are drowned and this thing is anything like a siren there’s a good chance there’s something down there.”  
Scott shrugged, “We have no idea what’s in there,” he put his hand in the water and felt a shiver go down his spine.   
“Lydia had a vision about it being filled with blood,” he added.  
“And you still didn’t look?”  
“Should we tell the sheriff about this?” Malia asked out of nowhere. After seeing his relationship with his son she genuinely thought that he had a right to know.   
“Maybe we should wait,” said Scott  
“Malia’s right, they could do a sweep of the pond,” argued Lydia and sat by the water. 

Scott ignored her comment and kept searching for anything he could find. They’d already been here so many times he didn’t know what he was expecting to find. 

Derek had followed what seemed to be Stiles’ tracks in the forest. They were in a straight line at first but he could see the struggle as they got closer to the pond and eventually disappeared. 

Scott sat by Lydia.   
“There has to be something we’re missing” he insisted and started throwing the stones next to him into the pond. They all disappeared into the dark water with a big splash.   
“Obviously. Otherwise, we’d have solved this already.”   
“I hope he’s okay.”  
As Scott picked up another stone he hissed in pain and dropped it.   
“Are you okay?”   
Scott inspected his palm, something that sliced it straight open.  
“Yeah, it was probably a piece of glass or something,” he said as he watched his hand quickly heal.   
Lydia carefully picked up the ‘glass’ and held it to the sun, “This doesn’t look like glass.”   
As Scott cleaned the blood, Malia took the unidentified object from her and looked at it closer. It was as thick, long as her index finger and snow white.   
Her train of thought was interrupted by Scott’s yelp.

Derek and Kira shot out of the woods, “What’s going on?” he asked.  
Scott gritted his teeth stretched out his arm to show them his palm. Small black lines had appeared from where the cut had once been. Scott took a sharp intake of breath as pain radiated up his arm.  
“It’s definitely not glass,” he winced as he was hit with another jolt of stabbing pain. 

Scott’s eyes were taken over by a fiery red. He couldn’t stop himself from shifting, it was as if the pain had overridden his basic functions. His agony persisted for another minute or so and disappeared as quickly as it came.   
“What the hell was that?” Malia questioned with frustration.   
“Believe me I wish I knew,” Scott replied.   
Kira Inspected the “glass” further, making sure her grip on it was loose.   
“Maybe we should take this to Deaton? He knows this sort of stuff right?” she said.   
“Yeah, that’s the best we can do for now,” he took the “glass” from Kira and held it up to his eye-level, “this could belong to the things killing those people.”  
“We haven’t heard from him in a while. Is he even in town?” .  
“We can’t know unless we go and see,” said Scott, “Derek?” he asked, wondering if he’d join them.  
He nodded and followed the teens. They’d lost too many people, Stiles wouldn’t be one of them.

XXX

Scott kept his eyes on his palm as they walked up to Deaton’s door. He didn’t feel anything anymore but the black lines still hadn’t disappeared completely.   
As Kira knocked on the door Malia asked,” Deaton’s the magic veterinarian right?”  
“Yeah, he’s a druid, and his sister Ms. Morrel’s was an emissary for the alpha pack,” Lydia answered.  
“Ms. Morrel?”  
“Do you know her?”  
“Yeah, she used to work at Eichen.”  
“I mean, she was also our guidance counselor,” Lydia shrugged. 

A voice inside told them to come in. As they entered Deaton opened the gate to break the mountain ash seal.   
“Welcome,” he led them to the exam room, “Is everyone alright?” 

Scott explained the situation and gave him the “glass”   
After examining it for a few minutes Deaton’s eyes went wide, “Wow, you’ve really got yourselves in a pickle haven’t you?”   
“Do you know what this thing is?” Lydia asked.   
Deaton circled around the metal table, “Things,” he corrected, “yes, I know what they are. Although I must say I haven’t heard of them in a long time. Most people believe that they went extinct. I suppose they were wrong.”   
Derek’s patience was wearing thin, “What are they?”  
“They’re called ‘Auraturs’”  
“And that thing belongs to one of them?”  
“Yes, it’s called a spine. They can extract them from their arms. They’re not the best fighters so this is their defense mechanism.”  
Scott showed him his palm, the black lines were nearly gone now, “And they’re poisonous?”  
“Yes. You’re lucky you’re a werewolf, otherwise, you’d be in a lot more pain right now. You were right about the people they target. They go after people who’ve lost a significant person in their lives and have a deep longing for them. Some can even shift to look like that certain person and appear differently to everyone.”  
“What do you mean some?” asked Kira, “Do they have a system like werewolves?”  
“I suppose they’re kind of similar, yes. They’re divided into three subcategories, ‘edibles’, ‘feeders’ and ‘prayers’, getting stronger and more advanced in that order. The edibles go around in packs but the others most prefer to be alone or groups up to three.”   
“What do they want? They must have a reason for being here,” Lydia leaned against the table.  
“They’re most likely passing by. They weren’t biologically engineered to live outside of water but they were forced to go on land when Vikings got too fierce for them. They have to harvest bits of the lung from humans to breathe on land.”   
“Do they go after supernaturals too?” Scott asked.  
“If you aren’t dealing with a prayer, I’d guess no. Very few of them exist now and they wouldn’t want to hurt their population by getting overpowered.”   
Derek cleared his throat, “So how do we fight them?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaahh so the mystery is finally solved! I was inspired by Sirens while coming up with these guys and I just kinda mushed them together with werewolves and pufferfish lol.   
> That nightmare scene tho! I felt so evil writing it! Poor Stiles, he just can't catch a break.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it was intriguing at the least. Comments are motivating, the next chapter should be up soon :)


End file.
